Muhammad Tareq ; Dhaka – Another batch of 78 Bangladeshi nationals, rescued from various notorious cyber scam compounds in Cambodia, returned home safely on Tuesday night.
A Thai Airways flight carrying the victims landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
With this latest arrival, a total of 221 Bangladeshis have been repatriated from Cambodian scam compounds over the last four days alone.
Upon their arrival, BRAC’s Migration Program—in collaboration with Civil Aviation Security—provided the returnees with emergency logistics, psychological support, and financial assistance to help them reach their respective homes.
A Gruesome Form of Human Trafficking
Shariful Hasan, Associate Director of BRAC’s Migration Program and Youth Platform, emphasized the critical need for public awareness regarding these overseas job rackets.
“This is a horrific form of human trafficking. Victims were lured abroad with promises of high-paying IT jobs, only to be held against their will inside heavily guarded cyber scam compounds. They were forced to execute online financial scams targeting citizens of developed nations, particularly the United States. If they failed to meet their daily scam targets, they were subjected to brutal physical and mental torture,” Hasan revealed.
The recent repatriations became possible after Cambodian law enforcement agencies launched massive crackdowns on several illegal scam operations, freeing the captive workers.
According to data from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), around 15,921 Bangladeshi workers migrated to Cambodia with employment visas over the last 18 months.
However, returnees report that thousands of them are currently stranded in inhumane conditions without any actual jobs.
Victim Accounts: Sold into Slavery and Electrocuted
One of the survivors shared his harrowing ordeal, stating that a local broker promised him a legitimate corporate job in Cambodia, charging him BDT 550,000. Despite having a BMET clearance, he was only granted a one-month tourist visa upon arrival at the Phnom Penh airport.
The brokers then disappeared, and representatives from a local recruiting agency literally “sold” him to a cyber-scam ring.
Another victim recalled the torture cells inside the compounds. “They used to beat us mercilessly to force us to work. If anyone refused to participate in the scamming, they were dragged into torture cells and given electric shocks. Fortunately, when Cambodian law enforcement initiated the raids, the Chinese operators fled the compound, allowing us to escape.”
A Growing Regional Crisis
The repatriation timeline highlights the scale of the ongoing crisis:
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June 12: 37 victims returned.
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June 13: 54 victims returned.
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June 16/17: 78 victims returned empty-handed.
This is not an isolated incident in Cambodia. Earlier this year, on January 22, eight Bangladeshis were rescued from a similar scam center in Myanmar, following the rescue of 18 others on September 19, 2025.
Those victims were trafficked through Mae Sot on the Thailand-Myanmar border, where their passports and phones were seized instantly to isolate them from the outside world.
Guard Against Fake Online Job Ads
BRAC warns that these international syndicates extensively use social media platforms—such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, and fraudulent websites—to advertise attractive packages for computer operators and call center executives.
Job seekers are strongly urged to exercise extreme caution and conduct thorough verifications before migrating to Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia.